white, and like
the Rhine villages look well from a distance. Beware the interiors, or
at least look before you leap. Then you will probably leap like the
stricken hart, and in the opposite direction. You will be surprised at
your own agility. Flee from the "Lodgings and Entertainment" announced
in the windows. Your "Entertainment" is likely to be livelier than you
expected, and you will wish that your Lodgings were on the cold, cold
ground. The Westporters are too pious to wash themselves or their
houses. "They wash the middle of their faces once a month," said a
Black Methodist. For there are Methodists here, likewise Presbyterians
and Plymouth Brethren--besides the Church of Ireland folks, who only
are called Protestants. All these must be exempted from the charge of
dirtiness. Cleanliness, neatness, prosperity, and Protestantism seem
to go together. Father Humphreys himself would not deny this dictum.

For the other clause of the indictment--lack of enterprise--the
Westporters are no worse and no better than their neighbours. The
Corkers make nothing of their harbour, spending most of their time in
talking politics and cursing England. Commercial men speak of the
difficulty of doing business at Cork, which does not keep its
appointments, is slippery, and requires much spirituous lubrication.
Cork ruins more young commercial men than any city in Britain, and
owing to the unreliability of its citizens, is more difficult to work.
Galway has scores of ruined warehouses and factories, and has been
discussing the advisability of building a Town Hall for forty years
at least. Limerick has a noble river, with an elaborate system of
quays, on which no business is done. The estuary of the Shannon, some
ten miles wide, lies just below, opening on the Atlantic; and a little
enterprise would make the city the Irish head-quarters for grain. The
quays are peopled by loafers, barefooted gossiping women, and dirty,
ragged children playing at marbles. Great buildings erected to hold
the stores that never come, or to manufacture Irish productions which
nobody makes, are falling into ruin. I saw the wild birds of the air
flying through them, while the people were emigrating or complaining,
and nothing seemed to flourish but religious services and
fowl-stealing. It was during my sojourn in Limerick that somebody
complained to the Town Council of poultry depredations, which
complaint drew from that august body a counter-complaint to the